INTERVIEW: Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Sen. JD Vance on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”

Ans The Biden Administration has been scandalous in not properly vetting these people. Donald Trump is exactly right. And again, just because they helped us, allegedly, doesn’t mean you have to let them come to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Maybe some of them should go to other countries. Maybe we should help some of them in their own country. And President Trump is exactly right about this. In fact, we know, we know beyond a shadow of doubt, that some of the people who have been let into this country are on the terrorist watch list. That is disgraceful. And Trump is right that we should stop it. 

Q I think now you’re conflating a few different things. You are now talking about people who have come in through the southern border, versus people who were vetted, and worked in U.S. intelligence–

Ans Oh no, we’ve certainly let in people through refugee resettlement who should not be in this country. Absolutely, we have. We have not properly vetted everybody who’s come in.

Q Do you have something that you’ve been briefed on?

Ans Certainly, if you look at–

Q A specific example you’re worried about?

Ans I have been, I have been briefed privately, but there’s also been public reports of people who have come in through the refugee resettlement process who are actually on some kind of terrorism watch list who- or who, importantly, were not actually helping Americans, even though they claimed- we got to be careful, Margaret. We have a country to protect, and we have, I mean, I have three young children. I don’t want people walking around the streets of this country who said they served the United States, but because the Biden Administration doesn’t believe in immigration enforcement, they didn’t properly vet them.

Q But you would properly vet them and allow them in if you’re in the White House?

Ans No, I didn’t say that, I said- Let everybody in? No, I think you want to help them–

Q I didn’t say everyone. I said specifically Afghans.

Ans I say, you want to help them. Maybe they want to resettle in their own country. Maybe they want to resettle in another country. What I’ve said is, I do think that we should help the people who were good to us. That doesn’t mean every single one of them has to come to the United States of America, right? 

Q Okay, I’m being wrapped, but I really want to ask you about China. 

Ans Please.

Q If you’re game?

Ans Yeah, yeah. 

Q Okay, so do you view China as a competitor or an adversary? 

Ans I think they’re both, right, and I think that what we want to do here is build the kind of international order where we can check China. We don’t want to go to war with China, but certainly they’re an adversary. I mean, they know, for example, the Chinese know that they’re manufacturing tons of fentanyl, they’re letting come- come into our country. Kamala Harris has done nothing about this. She should apply diplomatic and economic leverage over the Chinese to stop manufacturing this fentanyl, which then comes into the Mexican drug cartels, which they then ship into our country. 

(CROSSTALK)

Q The United States has– 

Ans This– 

Q The United States has designated– 

Ans This is a–

Q Some of these groups– 

Ans This is a scandal–

Q And pressed the Chinese government.

(CROSSTALK ENDS)

Ans Oh, we could do so much more. Fentanyl is not easy to manufacture, Margaret, and if Harris was applying proper leverage to the Chinese and to the Mexican drug cartels, we would not have so many people dying of fentanyl overdoses.

Q Like, what? How do you do that? What’s your vision of do- how you do that?

Ans Well, I think you walk into- to Beijing, you talk to Xi Jinping, and you say, your entire economy is going to collapse unless you get access to American markets. You need to take this fentanyl seriously or we are going to impose serious tariffs and economic penalties for not following our laws and not helping us stem the flow of this deadly poison. 

Q And you wouldn’t be worried about blowback on the U.S. economy?

Ans I think that we have a powerful economy, Margaret, with the best workers in the entire world. If we need to fight a trade war with the Chinese, we will fight it and we will win it, but we cannot do what Kamala Harris has done, which is be so terrified of using the ec- economic power that we have that she’s not even willing to stop the flow of this deadly poison coming into our country.

Q President Trump said Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi were lovely individuals when he was speaking in Montana last night. You agree with that characterization? 

Ans I think that President Trump gets along with world leaders, and there’s nothing wrong with him complimenting them as people, if it makes him more effective diplomatically. And there’s an irony here–

Q That’s different than walking in and laying down the law to Xi Jinping.

Ans There’s an- oh, no, it’s not actually, because you’re better able to lay down the law, like President Trump did, if you actually have a good relationship with people and they trust you to follow your word. We have to remember that Democrats, including Kamala Harris, attacked Donald Trump for having a good relationship with Vladimir Putin. Well, when Donald Trump was president, Vladimir Putin didn’t invade another country. When Kamala Harris was vice president, he did. So maybe they should take a lesson from Trump’s pray- playbook about diplomatic legitimacy, because I think Donald Trump got a lot done because world leaders respected him.

Q JD Vance, always good to talk to you. 

Ans Thanks, Margaret.

Q Thank you for making time for us. Good to see you.

Comment, Like 👍, share this article, and Follow us on our social media handles.